memeorandum: Miffed Benghazi chairman: State gave me ‘articles about Richard Gere’ (Martin Matishak/The Hill)

6:55 PM ET, July 11, 2015

Top Items:

I have one big question for Bernie Sanders — Apart from the Donald Trump sideshow, one of the biggest stories in the presidential election this past week has been the apparent momentum Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) is enjoying in his underdog campaign. — Sanders has been drawing crowds …

Discussion: Mediaite, Fox News and Slantpoint

Nick Gillespie / The Daily Beast:

Hillary's Strategy Is Actually Brilliant — Why, from a strategic standpoint, Clinton is right to stay as low profile as possible. — Has any future president been more misunderstood than Hillary Clinton? — As someone who cannot imagine any possible scenario in which I would cast …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Cafe Hayek and Hit & Run

Nate Cohn / New York Times:

Class or Ideology? My Conversation With Bernie Sanders — “Everything I'm telling you may end up being wrong,” Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator seeking the Democratic nomination for president, said early in our conversation on Thursday. — I had written concluding he had slim chances …

Discussion: Business Insider and Washington Post

John Fund / National Review:
History Shows That Trump Is Perfectly Willing to Play the Spoiler

Discussion: New York Times, Hot Air, Wall Street Journal and CNSNews

Jonathan Chait / New York Magazine:

The Obamacare Resistance Regroups — Three Congressional votes, two Supreme Court lawsuits, and an election have slowed them down but not stopped them. — Shares … The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, authorizing the federal income tax, was ratified in 1913.

Michael F. Cannon / Washington Examiner:

The ACA is dead — long live Obamacare — Obamacare supporters are mistaken if they think the Supreme Court's King v. Burwell ruling settles the issue. Even in defeat, King threatens Obamacare's survival, because it exposes Obamacare as an illegitimate law. — Say what you will about the Affordable Care Act.

Discussion: Salon and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Martin Matishak / The Hill:

Miffed Benghazi chairman: State gave me ‘articles about Richard Gere’ — The chairman of the House panel investigating the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on Friday ridiculed the State Department's responses to requests for documents. — “It is still like pulling teeth to get the information …

Discussion: Hot Air

Thomas Kaplan / New York Times:

Plan to Require Background Checks for Ammunition Sales Is Suspended in New York — The administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo agreed on Friday to suspend a plan to require background checks on ammunition sales, putting in doubt part of the gun control law that he considers one of his proudest legacies.

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Gothamist

Mark Hensch / The Hill:

Trump rides momentum to Arizona — After weeks of criticism — and rising poll numbers — in the wake of controversial remarks on immigration, Donald Trump brings his spotlight to Arizona, a longtime hotbed of border security debate. — The Republican presidential candidate be joining forces …

Discussion: Arizona Republic and ABC News

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

Blame John Boehner for the House GOP's Confederate flag fiasco — The Confederates launched a surprise attack, under cover of darkness. — It was 8:30 Wednesday night, and the House was plodding toward its 20th hour of debate on a little-watched appropriations bill, when Rep. Ken Calvert …

Discussion: Salon, The Huffington Post, Slantpoint, Humphrey on the Hill, Booman Tribune and New York Times

Candace Barnette / WTOK-TV:

New Details in Stonewall Death Investigation … Headlines List — Stonewall, Miss. — The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation is stepping in to investigate an incident in Clarke County where a man died after an altercation with a police officer. — Clarke Co. coroner Greg Fairchild …

Discussion: The Clarion Ledger, The Huffington Post, Guardian, WMC Action News 5 and theGrio

Surapan Boonthanom / Reuters:

Six killed and 11 injured in Thailand's violence-hit south — BANGKOK (Reuters) - Six people were killed and 11 injured in Thailand's three southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Songkhla in a string of bomb and arson attacks by suspected separatist militants, the army said on Saturday.

Discussion: Jihad Watch

Brendan James / Talking Points Memo:

Brewer On Trump's ‘Rapists’ Remark: He's ‘Telling It Like It Really, Truly Is’ — Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) defended Donald Trump's remarks calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and killers on Thursday, saying that the presidential candidate and ex-reality TV star was simply dropping a truth bomb.

Discussion: Hullabaloo

Scott Johnson / Power Line:

Reckon with this — After Dylann Roof murdered nine pastors and churchgoers in the course of Bible study in Charleston, President Obama couldn't wait to use the occasion for his narrow political purposes. “Let's be clear,” he said with urgency in his voice.

CNN:
FBI says Dylann Roof should not have been cleared to purchase a weapon

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Addicting Info, Liberaland, The Atlantic, Washington Post, Hit & Run, New York Times and Wall Street Journal

Luke O'Brien / Politico:

The Mayor vs. the Mogul — Michael Bloomberg's $9 billion identity crisis. — Piotr Lesniak. — On November 5, 2014, Mike Bloomberg settled in front of a Bloomberg terminal, logged on with his “B-unit” biometric identity card and prepared to send an email to his employees.